Korea vs China

The main difference I've found between Korea and China is that Korea is significantly more western and modern than China. I'm not sure how much of this is due to the fact that I'm usually in smaller cities in China, but still, even what I've seen of Beijing seems to be behind Korea.

There are a lot more foreigners in Korea, probably due in part to that fact. I was constantly surprised by how many we saw. Koreans stare much less (unless you're going somewhere like a bath house) because they are more accustomed to seeing us, and they are more likely to come up and talk to us.

They have less squat toilets and most bathrooms have tissue and soap, unlike China. They drink both alcohol and coffee, and have establishments to do so all over the place. They do not hock up loogies and spit all over like the Chinese do.

Koreans have much more western table manners too. Chinese eat very noisily and messily, they tend to gross out a lot of Americans. And much of the food over here is very spicy and garlicky, which makes for terrible breath. Chinese are known for having terrible dental hygiene in general. Koreans on the other hand brush their teeth after every meal, even lunch, and eat quietly and tidily with their mouths closed. They also drink while they eat, whereas Chinese usually don't, as they think it will make them sick.

Driving is more western as well; Korea has larger cars (sedans, SUVs and such) and much fewer bikes, scooters and self made vehicles that don't look street worthy. Drivers in Korea, while still a bit nuts, are nowhere near as bad as China, and traffic laws are followed a great deal more. Safely walking across the street is more of a given than a gamble.

They also have these crazy car parks that are like something out of a futuristic science fiction movie. Cars are driven into the building onto an elevator platform that lifts them up into what essentially amount to cubbies for the cars. An attendant drives the cars off the platform into the cubbies and then rides the elevator down. Very cool. There was one right across from my friend's apartment and I wanted to go in and get a picture but the security was pretty tight!

One thing I found interesting though, is that Koreans do not have a version of their language that uses the Roman alphabet to give the pronunciations of words, like the Chinese pinyin. When words are written in Roman letters, they are not pronounced phonetically, as we might guess, but there is no "code" or alternate language guide like pinyin to help pronounce them. This can definitely make it tricky over there. But Korean is a simplified version of Chinese, so maybe not too bad!